GOTCHA starred Anthony Edwards, and TAG starred Robert Carradine (who looks way older in this) ..Revenge of the Nerds
shareGotcha is only a small bit similar. T.A.G. is a better movie. My friends and and I started aseries of T.A.G.s after seeing this movie
~I want to die in my sleep like grandpa, Not screaming like his passengers as the plane crashed~
Not to mention both films star a Linda! (I only just noticed that, somehow...)
I agree that the two films are not entirely comparable in tone, direction, approach, even plot, but it's cool to find this thread as I first saw em at about the same time and have always (10+ years) paired them together in my mind despite an entirely different history with both - Gotcha has long established itself as my most watched movie with over thirty viewings, Tag I recently saw for the second time (and rather liked it, to be sure; Susan Swayze is an amazing name!), so it's pretty obvious which team I belong to. I'm curious in any case to find out why other people may prefer Tag as there's not one count in which I feel it comes close to rivalling Gotcha: Tony Edwards is a much better surrogate, his Linda has it all over the other one, the plot seems to strike up a much finer balance between different genres, and most importantly, paint bullets are a lot cooler than rubber suction darts, I mean come on...
As someone who owns both films and is a fan of both, I am much more of a fan of TAG. Gotcha was always sort of known as the unofficial sequel to TAG. Both have real strong points. They are easy to pair in the brain. BOTH SHOULD BE OFFICIALLY ON DVD. At the moment, only GOTcha is. They really ought to couple them together or something.
I've been watching TAG since the 80's (and me and friends of mine played it in high school with rubber band guns-NOT RECOMMEND THRESE DAYS), and I've watched GOTcha for maybe 5 or so years now. I see the similarities, but GOTcha goes into more of a real spy thriller direction, where as TAG goes more into a deranged killer direction. GOTcha also gets more serious about the sex and romance whereas TAG seems to keep it all more fun, more of a spoof.
I simply seem to have more fun with TAG, it is more of a comedy, whereas GOTcha seems to get me more in a serious mood.
Why I like TAG better though has a lot to do with several points. I like the actors better, I like the music, I like the location and setting better, and I simply like the lines and story better. But I also really like the whole wink and nod to the noir films of old that TAG plays with throughout the film right up to the very end. I also like TAG more because it has that feel of many of the great 80's thriller films that were made around that same time (without being too hack and slash-ish). I found TAG was more relatable, as they pretty much run around on a college campus, much of it at night, and deal with a nut job, whereas in GOTcha the star travels out of the country and all over the place in Europe and has all these adventures crossing borders and what not.
GOTcha is kinda of fantasy spy thriller trip, the kind of thing a lot of kids probably would have loved happen to them. Travel out of the country, fall in love, get wrapped up in spy stuff, etc. Not unbelievable, but TAG seemed a little more down to earth. College, falling in love, avoiding an idiot, crazy times, etc. And in TAG, there were a lot of good background characters that really made me laugh and held my interest. Not so much so in GOTcha as they mainly focus on the main actors in that one.
There are other things, but that's about it for now. Overall, for me, TAG is more richer in what it brings to the table. But it's all really a matter of preference. Both films are decently made, the acting is fine, the filming is fine, etc. TAG could look a little brighter in spots, much of it is shot at night, but that's also an old 80's vhs issue. It does look better on dvd if you have seen a good dvd-r transfer like I have. And an official release would be just fine.
They are only very superficially similar. Both colleges were UCLA though TAG didn't bother to bill it as the filming location and while dart guns were used in TAG paintball guns in Gotcha. While the plot of TAG revolved around the game, the plot of Gotcha did not. The assassination game in Gotcha was merely at the beginning while at UCLA. At most it set up that he had crafted the art of hiding and hunting to explain why he was decent at it in Europe. The plot of gotcha though revolved around espionage in Germany, the game did not continue in Europe. Gotcha was a Cold War spy thriller that is a fundamental difference.
As far as both the nerds being leading men in such films that is indeed interesting. Perhaps after seeing how competent he was at playing a loser in Nerds, Edwards was hired for the part in Gotcha. In contrast Carridine was chosen for Nerds after TAG. That they were both soft spoken went a long way towards that I think.
I used to get them confused i think.
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